Everyone has made mistakes on Instagram. Some of these mistakes are big and some are small, but they all have an impact.

Minimizing the mistakes you make on the platform are an essential part of having success on Instagram. This article will cover the 9 most common buying followers is big Instagram Mistakes that businesses on Instagram make that can negatively impact their business.

1. Not having a plan

Many Instagram users just go onto the platform without any form of plan. They think just posting pictures every day is enough.

They are wrong. Instagram requires much more work and planning than that. 

The first step of writing a plan is to think of your goals. For a business, the primary goal is to generate traffic for your website typically, but this is not always the case.

Anyway, once you have a goal, then you can develop a plan. Your plan should get you towards your goal. A good plan will involve a posting calendar and different keywords that you want to target to draw users to your account.

2. Buying Followers is Big Instagram Mistakes Made by Influencers

This is one of the more common buying followers is big Instagram Mistakes made by Influencers that new Instagram users make. They will start their account, post a few pictures, and get no followers. The next thing they do is get real Instagram followers.

This just does not work. 

Instagram can detect when you purchase followers and they will suppress any of the content you post if you purchase followers. 

Not to mention that your customers will almost instantly know that you purchased followers. No page has 10,000 followers with no comments or likes on any pictures. It just does not work that way on Instagram.

3. Posting Too Frequently

This is another problem that users not familiar with social media make. They will post way too frequently.

Once, maybe twice, per day is the most you should post. 

Some people go crazy and post ten or twenty times per day, which is way too much.

Posting this much will just push your pictures to the bottom of the news feed. Plus, your followers might love your brand, but they do not want you to spam their Instagram feed.

4. Not Adding Captions

A mistake that sometimes occurs is Instagram users forgetting to add captions. They think that no one reads the caption, so they just leave it out.

This belief usually comes from the fact that Instagram is a photo sharing platform. However, people still want to read captions on photographs. This is especially true if the picture looks good and they want to see the backstory.

Make sure to add captions. They do not have to be super long, just a few sentences that describe the picture. 

Photos that have captions tend to get more likes and comments as well. More engagement will only further propel your post.

5. Don’t Abuse Hashtags

Another widespread buying followers is big Instagram Mistakes by Influencers are using way too many hashtags. People will read that hashtags are good, but then they decide to put 35 hashtags in their posts.

That is too many hashtags. You should use five hashtags at the most in a post. Your Instagram followers will laugh when they see you hashtag stuffing. Plus, Instagram’s algorithm does not hashtag stuffing and will penalize posts that hashtag stuff.

Furthermore, you cannot possibly have a picture that you need 35 different hashtags to describe. Make one good photo that can cover a range of five closely related hashtags and you will do much better. 

Instagram will know that you posted a highly relevant picture and put it at the top of the hashtag search.

6. Track Your Metrics

Tracking metrics is one of the most important parts of marketing. Without marketing, you would not know if you are doing the right strategy or if your strategy needs adjustment.

Fortunately, Instagram makes tracking metrics easy. You can also use a third party tool like Iconosquare to track your metrics. 

Either way, you will want to track your engagement rate of posts, your follower count, and who unfollows you. Tracking who unfollows you is especially important because it can tell you if you are doing something wrong.

For instance, if you see a wave of people unfollowing you after a particular post, then you should not post about that topic.

7. Have a Profile Theme

Instagram does not allow custom themes. However, you can set a general theme for your profile by the type of pictures that you post. 

This means that if you have a dog grooming company, then you should only post pictures that are directly related to pet grooming. You should not post photos of money making or travel on your pet grooming page.

Your followers will be confused and so will anyone that happens to stumble onto your Instagram page. People like to follow accounts for one specific type of post, so stick to a particular theme within a niche. 

If you want to post about another niche, then create a separate Instagram account to do so. Do not try to mix your posting theme.

8. Not Using Video

Small businesses on Instagram will often suffer from this problem. A video is difficult to produce and the effect is difficult to measure.

However, a video is one of the most powerful ways to promote your brand. You can show people using your product or even have a short commercial.

Really, the possibilities with video are endless. It is much easier to compete on video too because most Instagram users fail to capitalize on video.

Now, you should not post too many videos. However, one relevant video per week should be enough to engage your followers without annoying them. 

As mentioned earlier, the most important part with posting video is to post valuable videos that people actually want to watch.

9. Not Having a “Business” Account

Not having a business account on social media platforms Instagram, Twitter can lead to missing out on opportunities, losing followers, and potentially tarnishing your brand name. Regarding Instagram, not having a business account can have severe consequences for your brand. If you don’t have one, you miss out on the opportunity to showcase your products and services and gain new followers.

Final Thoughts

Overall, most Instagram users “buying followers is big Instagram Mistakes” and fail to fix them. If you can avoid making mistakes like the ones listed, then you will already be ahead of the competition and in a position to do well on Instagram.